Structural Consistency, Consistency, and Sequential Rationality

David Kreps and Garey Ramey

Econometrica, 1987, vol. 55, issue 6, 1331-48

Abstract: Sequential equilibria comprise consistent beliefs and a sequentially ra tional strategy profile. Consistent beliefs are limits of Bayes ratio nal beliefs for sequences of strategies that approach the equilibrium strategy. Beliefs are structurally consistent if they are rationaliz ed by some single conjecture concerning opponents' strategies. Consis tent beliefs are not necessarily structurally consistent, notwithstan ding a claim by Kreps and Robert Wilson (1982). Moreover, the spirit of structural consistency conflicts with that of sequential rationali ty. One avoids these difficulties by weakening structural consistency to allow convex combinations of opponents' strategies, but this intr oduces correlation into the strategies that justify out-of-equilibriu m beliefs. Copyright 1987 by The Econometric Society.

Date: 1987
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (30)

Downloads: (external link)
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0012-9682%2819871 ... O%3B2-Z&origin=repec full text (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to JSTOR subscribers. See http://www.jstor.org for details.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecm:emetrp:v:55:y:1987:i:6:p:1331-48

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.economet ... ordering-back-issues

Access Statistics for this article

Econometrica is currently edited by Guido Imbens

More articles in Econometrica from Econometric Society Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().